Category: November 2016

Written by Gunjan Banerji Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. Oil prices have jumped 8.7% since Nov. 14 when OPEC said its members agreed to cut output. Options players are betting on another 17% run-up in prices. As of Friday, traders have concentrated on contracts that pay out when West Texas Intermediate hits $55 a barrel. While prices of crude futures have been whipsawed by uncertainty ahead of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ meeting this…

Written by Myra P. Saefont and Jenny W. Hsu Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. Oil settled higher Monday, with U.S. prices scoring their first gain in four sessions, as traders gauged the potential for members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to agree this week on a plan to curb crude output. Oil initially lost ground as hopes faded that OPEC members would be able to complete a deal to curb output. Prices took…

Written by Sarah Kent and Brian Spegele Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. This month, European oil company MOL Group delivered a stark message to investors: Demand for fuel in its key markets is bound to fall. So-called peak oil demand is a mind-bending scenario that global producers such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC and state-owned Saudi Aramco are beginning to quietly anticipate. But MOL has a transformation plan that is among the most explicit responses to…

Written by Patti Domm Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. OPEC is expected to deal for real this time, striking some form of agreement when it meets at the end of the month to curb production and stabilize the oil market. The cartel and non-OPEC members have been hashing out what could amount to an agreement to freeze production increases and actually cut back some output. The oil producers have tried and failed to strike a deal…

Written by Sony Kassam Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. Growing confidence that crude prices will rise in coming months is sustaining the expansion of oil drilling in the shale patch. Rigs targeting crude rose 19 to 471 this week, the biggest increase in the last 16 months, according to Baker Hughes Inc. data reported Friday. Shale drillers have now added 155 rigs since an expansion started at the end of May. Natural gas rigs rose by…

Written by CNBC Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. HOUSTON (AP) — The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by 20 this week to 588. A year ago, 757 rigs were active. Depressed energy prices have curtailed oil and gas exploration, although the rig count has been rising in recent weeks. Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that 471 rigs sought oil and 116 explored for natural…

Written by Ryan Dezember Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. FORT DAVIS, Texas—Usually when wildcatters and their Wall Street backers purchase property in West Texas, drilling rigs soon follow. That won’t happen at Sawtooth Mountain, though. Four energy companies and investment firm Warburg Pincus LLC are paying $1.2 million to lock the craggy, 7,686-foot protrusion at the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert in a conservation pact that will forever prohibit human disturbance, be it drilling for oil…

Written by Asher Prince Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. CROCKETT COUNTY — At 59 years old, Mike James has worked more than half of his life in the oilfields of Texas and New Mexico, chasing production as it has ebbed and flowed — “it’s where you find the sweet spot,” he said Wednesday. Today there’s no sweeter spot than here, in a patch of West Texas so flat that a person standing on a tall man’s…

Written by Grant Smith and Mark Shenk Click HERE to Read the Article by the Publisher. OPEC will complete an accord to cut production this month, while stopping short of setting the individual country limits needed to make the deal work, according to a Bloomberg survey. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will finalize a pledge to reduce total output -- its first cut in eight years -- when the group meets on Nov. 30, according to 14 of 20…